Is everyone born with a wild imagination? Probably- it just gets beaten/scared out of people at some point- or they think it is “childish” and not necessary for adulthood.
the key is that it is a WILD imagination- it is not TAME- if you try to tame it it will run away from you leaving you with boring old dead ideas
If you think about it- everything comes from imagination- everything starts with an idea- creativity, innovation- all that good shit adults buy over 9000 self help books about to try to reclaim- it all stems from Imagination-
You can always earn or acquire more money but once you’ve killed your own Imagination Rabbit it’s probably gone for good- that or it’s going to take a long time to try and coax it back into your service-
What is for sure is that you cannot buy it back- sure, you can go to an expensive prestigious art school and buy the fanciest, most expensive tools but without your imagination rabbit you are nothing but a person dying of thirst in a desert of old, redone, tired ideas that belong to someone else-
How would you try and get your rabbit to come back to live with you?
You can’t just yell at it and grab it using brute force- you’ll scare it off- you can’t coax it with money as it doesn’t give a shit about that- you can’t chase it as it can run faster than you-
You’ll have to prepare a nice place for it- with some plants- some cover for it to hide in- some water- some food- a peaceful setting- then MAYBE it will come back and help you-
I’ve walked away from and abandoned a lot of things and some people too BUT I’ve never walked away from or abandoned my imagination so its always here with me- to forever keep me company- to keep my excited about the possibilities in life- to challenge me to try and realize new ideas in new spaces-
I posted the above photo of me as a rabbit as a child wearing some rainbow clothes sort of like the logo for Imagination Rabbit but I’m not the rabbit- I don’t think so-
The imagination rabbit I named my studio after is one that’s visited me in two important dreams-
The first one I had when I had just started to dabble in animation- it went like this-
I was walking in my backyard when I could see several doll heads on sticks planted into the ground- they swiveled around and looked at each other as a small wooden rabbit- like a marionette of a rabbit- walked through them- the rabbit eventually walked past them and disappeared-
As it walked off all the doll heads on stick fell over lifeless-
I then walked up to the doll heads in the dream- I picked one up- and it then sprang back to life and stood up in the palm of my hand-
I instantly woke from the dream with these thoughts in my head
I have to become an animator- an animator can bring life to objects that have none- I’m supposed to tell these objects stories- I must become an animator
After that dream I became obsessed with learning and becoming an animator- years later I was making animated films and had begun an animator-
After I finished my third animated feature film (I am Nightmare [2014]) I had another dream with the same wooden rabbit- it went like this-
A giant metal robot looking thing was half submerged in water in this big underground tunnel- I enter the door/hatch of the robot thing- a few strange creatures were hanging around inside-
I just knew I was supposed to go in the back room of this place so I did- in that back room the same wooden rabbit was in the center of the room doing what I perceived to be as “magic tricks” It waved its hands around- drawing symbols and figures in the air as myself and some of the creatures watched- when I awoke from the dream I had these thoughts in my head-
I must become a game developer and a programmer- programming is like a magic trick- I have to learn how to make games- the rabbit wants me to learn these things-
So I then set out to first learn game development with Unity and then programming with C#- years later I’ve finished several games + other interactive projects and have become a decent programmer.
On the imagination tip- I released a game that makes animations in Nightmare Puppeteer- a creative tool for other people to use to realize their ideas as weird animations-
And now I’m finishing a new animated feature film in “M doll” in which I’m making in a game engine(Unity) and using programming to make things for the film- to extend my imagination-
The imagination rabbit has guided me well- it can guide you too- you just have to be kind and patient with it.
Don’t try to tame it- it doesn’t care about “making you a living” or anything like that.
Do something else for money and let your imagination rabbit run wild and do what it was created to do- that’s how you can stay in sync with the natural world and find peace amongst the man made chaos.
In the past foolish, short sighted people tried to tell me to tame my imagination rabbit for a little money at the time but I didn’t listen- people come and go but your imagination rabbit will always be by your side if you treat it well and don’t betray its nature.